OUST v. Harmon - Re: Steven Guttman's letter to Voyager Info-Systems

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

November 8, 2006

VIA fax and e-mail: sguttman@kdubm.com

Curtis Ching, Gayle Lau and James Nicholson
Office of the United States Trustee

c/o Steven Guttman, Esq., Kessner Duca Umebayashi, et al.

220 S. King Street, Floor 10

Honolulu, HI 96813

Re: CV05-00030 - Office of The U. S. Trustee vs. Harmon

Steven Guttman’s Letter of October 27, 2006 to Voyager Info-Systems

Gentlemen:

This letter is in response to Steven Guttman’s letter dated October 27, 2006, to Voyager Info-Systems, in which you state, in part:

“...Since 2000, the Trustee and the Successor-Trustees have been engaged in litigation against Mr. Harmon concerning, among other things, the various postings to his web-site identified as www.kycbs.net .

“The postings by Mr. Harmon violate the: (a) Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Award issued on October 6, 2004 by the American Arbitration Association (“Arbitration Award”); (b) the Order Granting Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Plaintiff’s Application for Confirmation of Arbitration Award and for Entry of Judgment Against Bobby N. Harmon (“Confirmation Order”) issued on June 20, 2005 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii (“USDC”) in Office of the United States Trustee v. Bobby N. Harmon, Civil No 05-00030 DAE-KSC; (c) the Order Granting Plaintiff-Successor Trustee’s Motion for Entry of Judgment on the Arbitration Award Against Bobby N. Harmon (“Enforcement Order”) issued on August 16, 2006 by the USDC, and (c) the Final Judgment issued on August 23, 2006 (“Judgment”). Copies of the aforementioned pleadings are enclosed for your review and records. The offending web-site postings by Mr. Harmon are made possible through your web-page service, Voyager Info-Systems.

“As you will note, the USDC Order and Judgment assess monetary damages against Mr. Harmon in the amount of $422,000. In addition to the monetary fine, the Court specifically order Mr. Harmon to remove all offensive and protected material from his web-site. As of this date, he has failed to comply with the Court’s orders and, furthermore, has hidden otheer [sic] offensive postings behind a password protected site.

“Pursuant to your “VoyForums Policy and User Agreement” with Mr. Harmon, Voyager Info-Systems seeks to protect itself against the types of violations and offensive posting being committed by Mr. Harmon. For example, your Agreement provides:

‘You [Forum Owner] will not stalk users of our system, nor will you post, email, or otherwise transmit and data which is illegal, harassing, threatening, abusive, or obscene to our system nor any user of our system. Also included as sucah a activity is the display of any private information of any individual, company, or other organization without permission of that individual, company, or organization. ... Notice is hereby given that any party contributing or otherwise participating in any such activity is subject to legal action from any related parties, including Voyager.’

“A quick review of the “kycbs” web-site will immediately confirm that Mr. Harmon continues not only to post material which is in violation of the Arbitration Award, the USDC Order and the Judgment, but that he also used the web-site to “post, email, or otherwise transmit [any] data which is illegal, harassing, threatening, abusive, or obscene...” A review of the web-site will also reveal that Mr. Harmon has posted information and allegations against hundreds of private citizens, companies and other organizations “without permission of that individual, company, or organization.”

“Mr. Harmon has also posted, transmitted, reproduced and distributed thousands of ‘copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining prior consent from the owner of such proprietary rights’. It is highly probable that such action ‘violate(s) applicable local, state, federal, or international law.’ The web-site also contains links to advertisements for the purchase or sale of certain products, and it is highly unlikely that Mr. Harmon has obtained the necessary permission of the ‘participating’ companies.”...

My comment to the above quotes from Steven Guttman’s letter is simply to say, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that under my Constitutional First Amendment Rights of Free Speech, my postings are not in violation of the Arbitration Award, the USDC Order and the Judgment, and that any data that I have posted is not illegal, harassing, threatening, abusive, or obscene. It is also my belief that Steven Guttman does not legally represent the “hundreds of private citizens, companies and other organizations” that he mentions, and that he has no legal right to speak on their behalf in claiming that my postings have harmed these entities in any way, or that I have violated any local, state, federal, or international law by these postings. If any private citizen, company or other organization believes that I have in some way illegally offended or harmed them, then I expect that entity to contact me directly to discuss ways to resolve those issues - not James B. Nicholson or the Office of the United States Trustee.

Mr. Guttman continues in his letter:

“One of the most disturbing aspects about Mr. Harmon’s web-site is that he links the site, and publishes and disseminates the materials on his web-site by emails and letters, to national and local politicians, governmental organizations, businesses and individuals throughout the country. I have attached for your perusal a few of Mr. Harmon’s emails and letters; there are hundreds upon hundreds. Some of the letters and emails have been copied to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. All of this web-site activity is made accessible and available to Mr. Harmon by Voyager Info-Systems.” ...

In response to this statement, I again state that I believe that I have every right, under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, to write to government officials, regulatory agencies, private citizens, witnesses, news agencies, blogs, etc., providing information about this frivolous, self-serving lawsuit that you have brought against me for the purpose of obstructing justice and covering up conspiracies and racketeering activities involving numerous individuals, government officials, companies and non-profit organizations. A review of the letters that you provided to Voyager Info-Systems should convince any fair and impartial judge or jury that these documents in no way violate the original Settlement Agreement, and that there is no proof of, or justification for, damages in the amount of $422,000.00.

These letters which you provided as examples of “offensive” and “protected” material to Voyager Info-Systems which you are asking to be removed can be found at:

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Baker-12-29-5.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Norton-3-11-6.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-OUST-4-27-6.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Kissinger-6-29-6.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-OUST-Millman-8-11-6.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Hastert-10-12-6.htm

Steven Guttman goes on to write:

“The ability of Mr. Harmon to maintain his web-site and continue to post offensive and protected materials in troubling. It appears there has been a complete monitoring of these abuses. The Successor-Trustee, through his counsel, hereby requests that pursuant to the terms and conditions of the ‘VoyForums Policy and User Agreement’, that you ‘terminate without notice’ the web-site identified as ‘kycbs’ no later than November 13, 2006, and that you provide me with documentation evidencing that the web-site has been shut down.

“In the event the site is not timely terminated, we will seek a supplemental Order through the U.S. federal courts to shut down Mr. Harmon’s entire web-site due to his failure to comply with the USDC Order and his insistence on continuing his offensive behavior in contempt of the existing Orders and Judgment. In our attempt to enforce the Court’s Orders and Judgment, we may be required to address the Writ of Enforcement to Voyager Info-Systems.

“Should you have any questions concerning the contents of this letter or the enclosures, please contact me. It is my sincere hope that with your assistance, we can put an end to the longstanding harassment and illegal action by Mr. Harmon. Thank you for your attention to this request.”

Sincerely,

<s> STEVEN GUTTMAN

It is my sincere belief that my letters reporting insurance fraud, bribes, kick-backs, tax evasion, racketeering and other illegal acts to the Attorney General’s office, the IRS, the FBI, the SEC, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, and other law enforcement and regulatory agencies, are altogether appropriate, legal and in the public interest. It is also my belief that both myself and Voyager Info-Systems have the constitutional right to publish these documents, and that your continuing efforts to silence my reporting of these illegal activities to the proper authorities are in violation of my First Amendment Rights and Hawaii’s anti-SLAPP statutes.

In case you missed it on the Voy Forums website, I would also like to quote what they say about reporting violations of Terms of Service/User Agreement:

The following announcement is for the protection of our staff and to ensure a nice working environment:

Please be courteous and *polite* to our staff when reporting the problem!

Messages which contain the words: sue, attorney, lawyer, and lawsuit, or are in ALL CAPS are automatically trashed. There is no reason to be nasty when reporting violations--it hinders, not helps your case.

Therefore, I again ask that the Office of the United States Trustee cease your illegal efforts to silence my reporting of these illegal activities, and accept my proposal to attempt to negotiate an out-of-court settlement of this matter.

Very truly yours,

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

cc: Voyager Info-Systems, www.voy.com (www.voy.com/exchange/contact/tos.html)

Steven Jay Katzman, Office of the U.S. Trustee (via fax: 619-557-5339)

Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary (via fax: 202-622-6415)

Janet Hughes, Internal Revenue Service (via fax: 720-956-4564)

Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General (AskDOJ@usdoj.gov)

Governor Linda Lingle (via fax: 808-586-0006)

Mark Bennett, Hugh Jones, Dorothy Sellers, and Lawrence Goya,

Office of the Attorney General, c/o Hugh Jones (hugh.r.jones@hawaii.gov)

Dan Inouye, U.S. Senate (senator@inouye.senate.gov)

Daniel Akaka, U.S. Senate (senator@akaka.senate.gov)